Posted on 02/01/2003 7:38:23 AM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON, Feb 01, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Bush administration officials said they had no immediate information Saturday that terrorism was involved as NASA lost contact with the space shuttle Columbia.
President Bush, who was at Camp David in Maryland, was informed about the situation and awaited updates from NASA.
"There is no information at this was a terrorist incident," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Homeland Security Department. "Obviously the investigation is just beginning but that is the information we have now."
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no threat made against the flight and that the shuttle, at an altitude of 207,000 feet over north-central Texas when it lost contact, was out of range of a surface-to-air missile.
Bush was told about the situation by his chief of staff, Andrew Card, and waited for more information from the space agency, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
On a normally slow day, White House officials were scrambling to get into the office. It was not immediately clear whether Bush would remain at Camp David.
"We're all watching TV and devastated and concerned," said John Marburger, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
If there was a way, it was through sabotage, IMHO.
The only way this could be terrorism would be if they managed to infiltrate a sleeper into NASA who performed some very subtle act of sabotage, so subtle it only had a probability of working. If there really were a sleeper agent, his sabotage would much more likely take place during the launch.
I wouldn't say that was the only possibility, I can think of several, but won't elaborate at this time, as it would only be idle speculation. It doesn't take much damage to make the Shuttle unflyable. If the re-entry attitude is wrong, you get what we got today, a fireball and lots of debris, or a shuttle that skips off the atmosphere and back into space.
I can. If whatever might have brought it down was sent up with it. Like the Pan Am over Lockerbie Scotland, for example, altough it wouldn't have to be anywhere near as large if it was sophisticated enough, and that would not be all that sophisticated.
We know the security on the shuttle itself was tight but what about the security on the boosters and fuel tank? We see that film of something hitting the wing at launch and it's public record what happened to the Challenger. We know terrorists but can be very clever or they think that they are. What if the fuel tank or the boosters were rigged to try simulate the Challenger disaster and it didn't work but indirectly caused damage to the shuttle itself.
Or, what if there was just a major malfunction on the Columbia that caused the death of 7 astronauts?
Well it wasn't that old, only about 1/2 that, but the one I just traded in had 375,000 miles on it. Consider though that the newest B-52 about to go to war in the skys over Iraq, is just over 40 years old. The last B-52H was delivered on October 26, 1962. If they re-engine them the BUFFs will still be flying in 2030 and beyond.
Compared to the average BUFF, the Shuttle is hardly used at all, and it gets something between a phase check and a minor overhaul between each flight. Columbia had only flown once since it's last major overhaul and modification. It wasn't that "tired".
Two Americans, one Russian. They are due to get an unmanned resupply flight today, that is Sunday Feb. 2nd. They are good until June with no more resupply. They have a Soyoz "lifeboat" docked to the ISS, should an emergency return be required. They can of course get additional resupply flights, if we pay the Russians for them.
If it's proven so or terrorism is proven not so then that's what happened but because it seems improbable does not make it impossible and on the day before 9/11 something else also seemed impossible.
Of course it would, we wouldn't want to profile now would we? If we have to nearly strip search old women with walkers and WW-II era Medal of Honor winners, but let those of Arab or other Middle Eastern descent walk right on board, unless they come up on the "random" draw, we could certainly have some "sleepers" working on the shuttle. Not saying that we did nor that this was terrorist sabotage, but I am saying it's way too early to rule that or much of anything else, out.
Agreed. If it turns out to be terror, we'll just have to throw a few more bombs on the BUFFs and Bones.
All further investigation must begin from this starting point.
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